Chao also discussed the release of the new version of Sina
Weibo: ”Since the official launch of Weibo.com v4.0 in
September, over half of the existing users have upgraded, and we
continue to see rapid growth of new users. Our focus now turns to
adding more social networking features to Weibo to increase user
stickiness.”

Q3 revenues reached $130.3 million, an increase of 20% over the
same period last year. Losses were $336.3 million, a steep fall
after turning a $31.3 million profit in the same period one year
ago. Of that loss, $281.2 million was “related to
other-than-temporary impairment write-downs on investments in
China Real Estate Information Corporation (“CRIC”) and Mecox Lane
Limited (“MCOX”).” Sina has a less-than-stellar investment
record, and recently made another investment into online video site Tudou
(NASDAQ: TUDO).